10 minute read
Opinion
Monrovia Old Town report: News flash(ing) beacons in Old Town
Man preparing to cross street using flashing beacon. | Photo courtesy of the Oregon Department of Transportation/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
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Shawn SPENCER
shawn@girlfridaysolutions.net
What is one of my biggest pet peeves? Almost dying every time I try to cross Myrtle, mid-block.
A lot of drivers are great. They stop, wave and let me cross. Others, not so much. They don’t even look side to side and are often either: a) staring at their crotch or b) staring at their phone. Both options are unacceptable. We all have moments; moments where we can be better drivers or more thoughtful, considerate drivers. We all zone out occasionally, while on auto pilot. It’s summertime, kids are out and about all day. During the school year, kids are walking to and from school. We must be more careful all year long.
I’m pretty confident that I won’t get hit. I’m savvy enough to make sure that cars see and stop for me. Kids are different. They don’t have the life experience to be discerning. They are still indestructible. Half the time, kids are listening to music through their earbuds and hear nothing else. Other times, they are just staring at their phones and completely unaware of their surroundings. It drives me batsh*t crazy.
Basically, we have to be extra careful because kids are extra careless. If they are anything like my daughter, they are probably wearing all black, which just adds another element of danger (thank goodness my daughter’s hair is blue and purple).
Safety-wise, today is a new day in M-town! This week, construction begins on the city’s pilot program for the Rapid Flashing Beacons at the mid-block crosswalks. The installations will occur above Palm Ave at Baskin Robbins, between Lemon and Lime at the theatre, and between Colorado and Olive at Pinkberry. This week, construction begins on the foundation and poles. Next week, the Rapid Flashing Beacons will be installed and configured.
As with all new programs, there may be a need for potential adjustments or changes to the configuration. However, the most important piece of this trial is actually using it. There is no way to tell if the beacons are helpful if no one presses the button prior to crossing the street. My hope is that people do, indeed, use the beacons.
If this pilot program is successful, they will be placed throughout the city. These safety measures are desperately needed at school crosswalks. The street parking blocks visibility tremendously. Add to that, a child darting across the street and a parent rushing to their next destination and you have the potential for tragedy.
I am thrilled the city is taking these measures to make Monrovia safer for all. I’m hopeful that city staff creates an online questionnaire, to gain feedback from residents. Use the beacons! Let the city know your thoughts on the benefits the flashing beacons provide. Let’s all try to drive a bit more conscientiously. Nothing is more important than the safety of our community members of all ages.
Send your letters to tmiller@beaconmedianews.com - Please be brief.
Re: Male gay couple sues Pasadena fertility clinic over alleged wrong sex embryo implant” (July 7 issue)
they specified.
But my heart aches for her and for their future offspring who will learn from their parents that if no one can satisfy every last one of their most extravagant demands, they’ll just have to do what many do in our litigious society: Sue the no good #?^!*?! who disappoint them.
Apparently, the Sanigers’ baby girl came into the world healthy … but that’s not enough to please her parents. I, for one, give thanks that my parents were not like the Sanigers.
David Quintero
Monrovia
Korean BBQ
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the proposed changes and had many opinions about what this means for restaurants and cuisine in the future.
Burning uncertainty
Hey SoCal: How do you feel about the motion recently introduced to phase out gas from future residential and commercial buildings beginning in January 2023?
Shon: They’re doing this one for global warming, right? I think they got the point but their movement is not that correct, because there’s something much more that they can fix before tabletop stoves. As I know, an ordinary American family mainly eats meatbased meals. And meat consumption is growing. And for that, they have to make it a factory system. To keep that system, they have to get the land for that they have to cut up the woods and get their land.
Because they’re cutting out the woods, the trees and forests cannot produce oxygen anymore, they cannot take the CO2 (carbon dioxide) anymore. The circulation of air is not going nicely. So if they spend that much money on this political movement, I would say they should probably try to change the American diet.
Hey SoCal: We got a quote from Nithya Raman’s office, the person who was in charge of passing the motion. They mentioned that Korean barbecue restaurants use propane instead of natural gas.
Shon: I don’t want to speak for others. But for this restaurant, we use charcoal. Korean barbecue is best with charcoal. The thing is that in California, most of the buildings, because of earthquakes, will be wood base buildings. Fire inspection is really sensitive, so if you only use charcoal, we have to get an extra inspection and extra insurance for that.
That’s why we use gas, though. Personally, I don’t like gas stoves. It leaves some kind of really artificial gas smell on the surface
(Left) Manager of SBD Flame Jenith Shon and (right) journalist Eloin Barahona-Garcia. | Photo taken by Jason Kentaro
of the meat. To enjoy this barbecue, we have to use charcoal. In reality, like I just mentioned, it’s really hard to get charcoal all the time. That’s why we put a gas stove on the table. Without it, what’s the point? What’s the point of Korean barbecue?
I understand their movement, but the thing is to get the substitute for them already. Then the business can survive and the cultures can feel comfortable, not feeling offended about those government actions.
That should have come first before they announced this. Because right after they announced it, honestly, every day, all the workers, all the people that I know from the industry, we just talked about that.
Before it was just like, ‘Oh, it’s so hard to run the business.’ What should we do? The economy’s going down. It’s getting worse and worse, but we have to survive. Right now, you just talked about the gas stoves and that much will affect every person. Every business. How can we survive without this? Right? How can we survive?
Hey SoCal: How do you feel Korean barbeque is representative of your culture?
Shon: In Korean culture, we just use one big table inside a room and share the pot together. We put our spoons in the pot and share. Yeah, it’s not that clean, but you’re sharing the experience together.
We learn how to respect all those foods and where they come from. We learn that and talk to each other. Western culture has that too, one big table where they talk a lot. Sharing the food is a
little different.
Korean barbeque is one of the easiest ways to get around the table and actually share the food.
Hey SoCal: Can you explain how gas is integral to this form of cooking?
Shon: Korean barbecue is so unlike other barbecues—we have to cook on the table. You cook it by yourself. Well, a lot of people don’t know about that yet. We cook it. That’s the fun of it. Every family in Korea knows how to cook in their own way, so we share the cooking, we share the food, and that is our culture.
Everybody likes having cooking on the table because it’s really fresh. It’s really clear what kind of meat you have. The cooking process is much cleaner than others. We also have dishes that we cook inside of the kitchen, but the customer doesn’t know what happens during the process.
Cooking on the table is so clear. You see the ingredients, and you cook it or they cook it on the table. What can be more clear than that? That’s the fun.
Hey SoCal: What would you say is the difference between gas and electricity?
Shon: The highest heating point is so different. If you use electric stoves, you don’t have that direct contact with a flame and the meat. It’s not going to burn the space enough to make the meat crispy. It’s going to be all rubbery or really tough if we grill like that.
If you use an electric stove on the table, it’s not going to reach that point. And even if it does, it’s going to consume a lot of energy to reach that level. I think it’s gonna be, I don’t know, double the cost of energy consumption.
How many people have to work to create that energy out there? I know it is much more complex than the example I just told you about. Still, as a consumer choosing between gas and electricity, I choose gas for now.
Hey SoCal: Would you say that electric grills are going to have to be proven before people get on board with them?
Shon: That is certainly true. For family use, a lot of electric grills and pans are used. You can easily get them from Amazon or a Korean market. It’s really common. But business use, it’s a little different.
Why do you go to restaurants? Maybe you don’t want to cook at home or maybe you want to have something different. The thing is, they can do it at home. There has to be a certain difference between home-based food and restaurant-based food. If we’re selling the same food that everybody can make easily, what’s the point?
Just think about it. If the customer comes here and the meat is not any different from grilling at home, what’s the point of being here? They won’t come. I wouldn’t come. They come here to have something different. Something better, something more special, something more professional. If Korean barbecue isn’t special anymore, the old restaurants have to shut down.
Hey SoCal: Do you feel like this motion might eventually lead to change for current restaurants, even though they said it would only apply to future residential and commercial buildings?
Shon: Of course. In the beginning, there would be no new restaurants, so customers would come here. But then, there wouldn’t be enough competition. The market would just be stuck. Because of the regulation, new restaurants can’t do anything—no spending, no marketing, nothing. It’s the same thing over and over. Of course, that process is gonna make us disappear.
If we don’t evolve the system, just cutting off the system, how many people can survive? Some people who run the restaurants aren’t not educated, they just chose that business because they just know how to cook. They don’t know how to evolve the technology, they don’t know how to handle that equipment. If this regulation exists just like that, all those regular people who don’t have enough professional knowledge are going to disappear.
Hey SoCal: Do you feel like people are going to push back some more against this?
Shon: Yes, we have to. Korean barbeque is just the beginning. It’s gonna spread out to all kinds of different cultures. Maybe a Mexican restaurant next door, or a donut shop, or an Italian restaurant. It’s far-reaching. It’s not going to be a big, broad step. One by one, they’ll have to close down the business or change.
Hey SoCal: But if they were to, in the future, mandate gas removal from current businesses, would you change to an electric grill?
Shon: Well, I would voice up, but I’m not going to go against the government. I really do respect them. If they went to enough consideration and still have the same result, I’m going to follow them because I do respect the government’s job. I just hope they’re very clear about why they’re making that regulation, and how they’re going to do that. Hopefully without any violence or aggressive expressions.
You have to talk to each other. There are so many dramatic changes right now — not only in food. If we understand each other a little more, it’d be better.
